EXPLORING UNCERTAINTY

Posted By samguss on February 3, 2010

Photo from http://www.nasawatch.com/

The plan is for these companies to develop commercial applications to low earth orbit, freeing NASA to concentrate on long distance space flight. The main objective is to provide space taxi’s that will deliver cargo and manpower to the international space station. President Obama has a plan to invest 6 billion dollars over the next 5 years to develop these space taxi’s.

Regardless of how anyone feels about this move today, I suspect that 10 years from now this plan will not only be successful but will fuel the future of space travel, colonization, industry and trade. In 50 years, I suspect we will look

The original Mercury 7

back at this time and declare it the official catalyst to civilian space ventures. While the following seven companies are not the first to venture into space, they will be the big dogs in years to come. As a matter of fact I need to invest some money into these companies, because I think the payout will be huge in the years to come.

The new NASA’s 7 include (and are beyond the two big aerospace names of Boeing and Lockheed Martin):

• SpaceX
• Orbital Science Corp.
• Bigelow Aerospace
• Sierra Nevada Corp.
• Blue Origin
• Paragon Space Development
• United Launch Division

Over the course of the next couple of posts, I’ll delve further into these individual companies to see what I can find out. It’s a fascinating time and while the bureaucrats continue to debate over the effectiveness of turning space over to the civilian world, I for one rejoice in it.

The new faces of the new frontier – space, were revealed the other day in a scene similar to one from 51 years ago when the original seven astronauts were introduced who would be training to go to the moon. These seven faces though are not the heroic faces of brave men, but those of company CEO’s that will be receiving money from the US government in order to develop their own independent space flight programs.

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Category: Wierd Science | No Comments »
Tags: civilian space, merchant 7, mercury 7, NASA, nasa 7, space flight, space taxi

Posted By samguss on February 1, 2010

Went and saw Legion on Thursday night and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t quite the horror/action movie I was expecting but more of an Action/Character Sketch. I have always liked apocalyptic fiction and horror stories with a religious twist. In Legion, the story has it that God is done with mankind and sends his minions to wipe mankind from Earth and prevent the birth of a baby destined to change the direction mankind is going. It is hinted that the baby would be some kind of savior – but not necessarily the savior of mankind towards God.

The Arch-Angels Michael and Gabriel take center stage and a couple of fight sequences really bring about a realistic feeling on how angels with wings would battle, including how they would use their wings in combat. Michael represents leading a life based on Hope and serving God’s needs, while Gabriel represents leading a life based on serving God’s wishes and demands. It is classical Christian philosophy debate of Faith vs Works in a non-Christianity format. Indeed I am sure many churches would cringe on my assessment in the preceding sentence.

In the end, Michael is rewarded for following the basic tenant of believing in Hope and giving to his maker what is needed within his own thinking, while Gabriel is put in his place despite following his maker’s exact commands. By the way, so I don’t misrepresent the movie, it is not as theological as I am making it sound – it is me putting together my own conceptions of what the story MAY be telling. I say MAY be telling, because while the story does hit on some Christian themes, it is no way necessarily providing any kind of doctrine to impart upon the audience.

An interesting movie. As I said previously I stepped into the theater to watch a horror/action movie with a religious twist, instead I received entertainment on character sketches with a loose religious theme and some hardcore action. The Arch-Angels fighting between themselves in one particular scene I consider kind of epic – if only because it involves such great choreography.

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Category: Previews & Reviews | No Comments »
Tags: apocalypse, christianity, Legion, movie, review

Posted By samguss on January 31, 2010

Photo by Samuel Guss

The other night, my wife and I went to Apple-bee’s for dinner. We had a gift card from Christmas that we hadn’t used yet and since we were out to see a movie, we decided to make it an old fashioned date night. We both had a steak, she had a drink and life was good.

Meanwhile, an elderly gentleman in his late 60’s early 70’s came into the restaurant and took a seat at the table directly across the aisle from us, where he had an unobstructed view of the front door. He seemed fidgety and nervous but it wasn’t long before we overheard him tell a waitress he was waiting on someone. A few minutes later he followed up with a phone call to someone making sure they weren’t lost or anything.

By this time it was obvious he was waiting on a blind date, which amused us. My wife and I had met on a blind date and here we were now happily married and on a date night. It was sweet and fascinating to us, that here was this gentleman and as nervous as a school boy on his first date. When the lady arrived, we were impressed. A charming lady, maybe mid to late 60’s, kept herself up obviously and he did the classic pulling out her chair, etc.

By now, my wife and I were enthralled. How would these two get along? Was there chemistry? How would their first date go? How was it at their age they were on a blind date!? And how awesome, that at their age they were still looking for romance. So we eased dropped. The conversation went well enough and while his boyish nervousness never left – at least while we were there – she obviously was delighted by him. Her body language relaxed, leaning towards him, opening her arms instead of crossing them. To people-watchers like ourselves it was obvious the two were hitting it off and you could see the chemistry building between the two.

Photo by Samuel Guss

As we finished our meal we came up with our plan. We hijacked the waitress and explained that we had originally came in to use our gift card, but because we met during a blind date and we were taken in by this older couple, we wanted to use our credit card for our meal and have the gift card used to help pay for their meal. It simply seemed fitting, our way of giving back to the world and to this couple, something memorable to reflect on about their first date. Their blind date. That indeed romance never dies, especially for die hard romantics. It was our way of saying thanks to our own blessing of having found each other – and started it through a blind date.

With that we paid our tab, discreetly gave the waitress the gift card and made our way out of the restaurant and went to the movies. In our minds, this couple has already made it through their courtship and fell in love and now neither is lonely anymore. We hope that vision is never shattered. After all we believe.

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Category: Inspiration & The Muse, The Writing Life | No Comments »
Tags: blind date, random acts of kindness, romance

Posted By samguss on January 30, 2010

Star Trek Online, the MMO began it’s head start launch for people who pre-ordered the game. The MMO itself goes live on Tuesday, February 2, 2010. Since I did pre-order the game myself, I got to participate in the Open Beta of the game and now the head start. In short, the game is phenomenal and appeals to fans of Star Trek and non-fans of Star Trek. While the IP of Star Trek is used, the costumes, ship design, races and such do strictly come from Star Trek cannon, there are unique aspects of the game that could be placed in any good Sci-Fi MMO. For us Star Trek geeks though…

Comic from: http://www.pvponline.com/

 Several of my World of Warcraft buddies, guild mates and friends are playing STO as well and we’ve all joined a Fleet called The Consortium. It has been a blast to finally get everyone that I normally play MMO with, together in one spot. I have to admit, that many of us – myself included, did not have very high hopes for STO. As a matter of fact I had already written it off but was willing to put $5 down on a pre-order so I could say I at least tried it. The big surprise of course was how well done Cryptic Studios (game design studio for STO and other MMO’s) did to this game.

For those who haven’t played in an MMO setting before, it is a great experience. Yes, it’s playing games, but it is also a hive of social activity. Recent studies even showed that while MMO players view other entertainment sources with less frequency than the normal population (such as TV, movies, bars, sports games, etc.), they are more apt to frequently be in touch both virtually and physically with their friends than the normal population. The study simply shows that gamers are for the most part more sociable than the “norm”. As always there are exceptions to the rules.

The game is showing a lot of promise going by the numbers in head start and upon a successful launch on Tuesday, STO may find itself in the rare company of such great MMO’s as World of Warcraft, Eve, City of Heroes and other popular MMO’s. It will probably not knock out the king of MMO’s – World of Warcraft, but it does look like it will carve itself out a nice niche market that will be sustainable for the next few years. This is more than any MMO could ask for.

The mechanics of the game are fairly simple to learn but does have a slight learning curve – especially when determining the strategy of how you want to play STO. There are 3 classes: Engineer (support and tank role), Tactical (DPS/Damage role) and Scientist (support and healing role). Along with 3 ship types, that any of the classes can fly: Escort (DPS/Damage role), Cruiser (Tank role) and Science (support, buff/debuff role), puts a total of 9 ways to effectively play STO in space… There’s also ground environments in the game that while are not as pronounced as the space environment, still takes a part, which can add 3 more ways (using ground skills of classes as their development base) to play.

In addition to all of this, there are severeal types of missions one can engage in:

1. Exploration missions
2. Patrol missions
3. PvP missions (player vs player)
4. Fleet actions (massive combat with up to 20 players)
5. Security missions

This game is a true dream come true for many players who have been a big fan of the Star Trek IP over the years. Indeed there has been some noise that it has even made fans of Star Trek amongst younger players who have never been interested in Star trek to begin with.

With so much to do, the developers believe it will take the average player 80 hours to reach the maximum level in the game. As with any MMO, it doesn’t stop once you reach the highest level. A whole new game opens up with content specifically for these high level characters and players to enjoy. Throughout Beta and with what Cryptic has already announced for addition content in the first month of operation, STO does have a lot to offer – and this is just the beginning. MMO’s always have content updates, new content, expansions and the like that come out on a semi-regular basis. It will be interesting to see where STO is after it’s first year.

If you end up giving the game a try – be sure to look me up. I’m known as Renczi in the game. I leave you with my STO Fleet signature banner. It was made by a friend and I think it looks pretty darn cool. Yes, I am a geek.

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Category: Gaming Life, Previews & Reviews | No Comments »
Tags: mmo, star trek, star trek online

Posted By samguss on January 29, 2010

Photo by Samuel Guss

My nephew was born today around 11:30 am.

He was 8 lbs. 8 oz.

His head was a whopping 14″.

He was 21″ long.

We expect he’ll be 18 by Christmas. Best of all though, he had a blessed birth day… today was the release (head start anyway) for Star Trek Online. His parents and his uncle and aunt are geeks. Thus it is a good thing. It’s an omen. Anyway he’ll be loved and spoiled. Happy birth day nephew!

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Category: The Writing Life | No Comments »
Tags: nephew

Posted By samguss on January 28, 2010

I have found over time that a writer’s journal has a certain feel to it’s owner. A certain… weight. A texture that inspires and pages that beckon to be written on. Sad to say, but it’s been awhile since I’ve had one. Sure I have notebooks out the wazoo, 3-ring binders, printed paper a 3-hole punch, file holders, document presentation folders, page protectors and even simple legal note pads. It’s not the same as a writer’s journal.

We moved back in July 2009 to our beautiful new home. There are some boxes that still need to be unpacked, books to be put on bookshelves, little trinkets here and there to be put on display. I am positive in one of those boxes is my old writer’s journal – a simple Moleskin notebook that’s about half-filled. But I’ve been lost without one for awhile to the point I can remember the feel but not the inspiration. So today I went out to one of my favorite local bookstores and purchased two things for my writing.

“The 3 a.m. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises” by Brian Kiteley and a new leather writing journal. It’s a 5×8 soft – but not suede soft – black leather journal with college-spaced lines on both sides of the paper. About 100-120 pages and is flexible enough to lay flat, sturdy enough not to get too bent out of shape and weighted just right for my hand.

People routinely become bonded with inanimate objects that serve them as tools. Look at the outdoors man who has his trusty pocketknife and feels “naked” without it. The car mechanic who has diligently collected his tools over the years in his garage, displaying everything he can, as a shrine to engine repair. The cook with her favorite knife set, frying pan and baking ware. The child with his/her blankie. The teenager with his car and her prom dress. The bridal dress. The man’s den.

The writing journal for me is a tool. Something to bond with. For the next few months my personal notes and writings will go in there. Not all. Most will get written in the larger notebooks or typed out on the computer screen, maybe to see itself printed on paper and stuck in a binder one day. But those quiet alone times, my journal will be there, just as past journals have been. From them writing goals, plots, characters, stories, enthusiasm, depression, highs and lows of my creative self processes will be entombed there. It will be brought out on occasion with one of it’s lowly brethren to write more detail character sketches or ponder if I captured the mood as I originally envisioned – and whether it is better or worse. At times it will be my muse. Other times my memory.

Even the fact I have found that perfect next little writing journal has already inspired such a detailed post on what it means to me. The book will help serve as a catalyst as well and I will be sure to keep you updated.

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Category: News and Updates, Writing Journal | No Comments »
Tags: journal, notebook, writing